Powerbook Bronze loosing info. ???? Help!

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cre8chaos

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 29, 2005
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I bought a cheap Bronze PBg3 with no battery to play with have the yo/yo plug though. The problem is when I shut it down the only thing it remembers is the name of the user not the setting any thing that I changed or put in or on it.
The question is, Is this the (BIOS) I know it is not called that on mac but anywho, battery or wtf is going on. I dont get it.
Can you help?
Thanks for your time,
Scott
 
yea, may be a dead internal battery


ps. the "Bios" of macs is called "OpenFirmware", and its much less user friendly, since most of the things you need to change can be done within OS X
 
every thing. Mail setting, network connections, even the icons I take off the bottom bar.
Just like a fresh install every time I start up. Have to go put it all in again.

FYI I am not new to mac's I have had 4 prev. I just wanted to play with a laptop and the price was right. So you can tell me in non laymen terms if it is needed.
Easy on the terminal stuff though. :D
 
did the computer come from an educational institute or company? It sounds like you have some sort of software (deep freeze etc.) that's setting the computer up a certain way each time you restart. If you have access to the software backup disc(s), I would recommend starting with a fresh install. If you don't hve the disc or that doesn't work, let us know.
 
not sure of the past life of it. I only have OSx on DVD and this has a cd. I can ask around and see if I can get it on cd I guess. Can I do it via network from my G5 iMac?
Still the battery though? I can get that for $20 I found.
 
off the top of my head, I don't see any reason you couldn't do it over the network.

the battery 4b5eN+EE and others are talking about is similar (in concept) to the button cell for BIOS in x86 machines. For more info, take a look at apple's website; http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

It really sounds to me like it's more software/OS related to me. Get a fresh install going and see if that solves the issue.
 
cre8chaos said:
Like? through me a bone here.
Click to expand...

is this a lombard or a pismo? meh, either way.

the battery

install

have you tried a clean install of the os on this one? this does sound something like deep freeze to me. have you repaired permissions? are you logging in as an administrator?
 
cre8chaos said:
not sure of the past life of it. I only have OSx on DVD and this has a cd. I can ask around and see if I can get it on cd I guess. Can I do it via network from my G5 iMac?
Still the battery though? I can get that for $20 I found.
Click to expand...

if it's a pismo with firewire, you can install with target mode as well. plug a firewire cable into your iMac and the laptop and restart the laptop while holding "T", wait until you see a firewire icon bouncing around the screen. the drive should mount on your iMac's desktop.

you might still have to install the iMac to get to the disc's installer, i don't really remember.
 
vinividivici said:
if it's a pismo with firewire, you can install with target mode as well. plug a firewire cable into your iMac and the laptop and restart the laptop while holding "T", wait until you see a firewire icon bouncing around the screen. the drive should mount on your iMac's desktop.

you might still have to install the iMac to get to the disc's installer, i don't really remember.
Click to expand...

No firewire on mine. It will not work with out that right?
I did reset the battery and it is working now but I do what a fresh install and only have DVD's for all my OS's now. :(
 
hmm, two options;
-find a usb dvd rom to use
-http://images.apple.com/macosx/pdf/tigermediaexchangev4.pdf

on second thought, you may be able to make a disc image of the tiger install dvd and send it to the powerbook over a network...maybe :confused:
 
bahula03 said:
hmm, two options;
-find a usb dvd rom to use
-http://images.apple.com/macosx/pdf/tigermediaexchangev4.pdf

on second thought, you may be able to make a disc image of the tiger install dvd and send it to the powerbook over a network...maybe :confused:
Click to expand...

and how might one go about finding how to do that? I can not find anything. You know the path?
 
on your imac, open up disk utility (should be in applications->utilities), click on file->new->disk image from folder... Select your tiger install disc on the left and click create image.

From there, you should be able to get it onto the powerbook over your home network...although I have my doubts that it will actually work once the powerbook is restarted to do the install.
 
you don't have a drive enclosure, do you? it's really easy to get drives out of lombards and pismos.
 
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